Toolkit: Workforce Programs for Child Support Populations Tennessee Workforce Strategies and Child Support Services Project | YoungWilliams
Child Custody and Visitation
Jeff Ball, an honorary life member and 2010 Felix Infausto Award Winner for his outstanding leadership and contributions to ERICSA, participated in a workshop covering interstate modifications under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), and spoke in a plenary session on custody and visitation in paternity cases.  Jeff’s extensive resume includes five years with the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) as a Senior Advisor to the Commissioner and Branch Chief, where he served as an Official Observer to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws’ Uniform Interstate Family Support Act Drafting Committee. Â
Paternity
Each August, YoungWilliams observes Child Support Awareness Month along with the child support community. President Bill Clinton established Child Support Awareness Month in 1995. We use this time to promote the valuable services this program provides, location of parents, establishment of paternity, establishment and enforcement of support orders, modification of orders, and the collection and disbursement of child support payments, and to acknowledge the people doing the work.
Spousal Support
A district court has many factors it can consider when applying the extended income formula for child support.. Payments to a 529 account, when ordered as a separate provision in a divorce decree, aren’t child support. The mother and father, both high earners, divorced. The final order set spousal support, child support for three children and, as a standalone term, required both parents to contribute monthly to a 529 account for each child. When the spousal support ended, the mother filed to modify child support. Using the extended income formula, the district court increased support and declined to count the father’s 529 contributions as support. The district court denied the father’s motion to alter or amend the judgment. He appealed on several grounds.
For child support funds to be exempt from garnishment, the account into which they are deposited must comply with the provisions of the Colorado Uniform Transfer to Minors Act. When social security funds are comingled with other money, only the amount of funds that is clearly traceable to social security is exempt from garnishment. The parent in this case was awarded Social Security Disability. His employer had provided temporary disability during the award period and sought reimbursement. When the judgment wasn’t paid, the employer began garnishment proceedings. The parent argued his funds were exempt.